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In the examples in the first column, the subject of the verb is represented as acting, or active; in those in the second column, the subject of the verb is represented as acted upon, or passive. When the subject of a verb is represented as acting, the verb is said to be in the ACTIVE VOICE; when the subject of a verb is represented as acted upon, the verb is said to be in the PASSIVE VOICE.

Adjectives. In modern English, no adjectives use inflections to express case or gender; and the only adjectives which use inflections to express differences of number are "this" and "that" e. g., " This book is interesting, but these books are dull; "That child is idle, but those

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children are industrious."

With these exceptions, every adjective has but one kind of inflection: COMPARISON.

If I say "Sugar is sweet, molasses sweeter, honey sweetest," I use 66 -er " and "est" to mark the degree in which the objects compared possess the quality spoken of.

Will's eyes are bright,

Maud's are brighter,

Jack's are brightest of all.

John is a happy boy,

Richard is even happier,

Tom is the happiest boy I know.

In each of these examples, the termination "-er" indicates that one of two persons or things possesses the quality spoken of in a higher degree than the other; and the termination "-est," that one of three or more persons or things possesses the quality spoken of in a higher degree than the others. The adjective in its original form is said to

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be in the POSITIVE DEGREE, the adjective in "-er" in the COMPARATIVE DEGREE, the adjective in "-est" in the SUPERLATIVE DEGREE.

A few adjectives-e. g., good, bad, ill, far, fore, hind, late, little, many, much, nigh, old-form the comparative and the superlative degree irregularly.

A great many adjectives, including some in two syllables and almost all in more than two syllables, have no inflections, but form the comparative and the superlative with 99 and more 66 most" e. g., "The dog is sagacious, the horse still more sagacious, the elephant the most sagacious of quadrupeds."

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Adverbs. A few adverbs have the inflection called comparison: e. g., badly or ill, worse, worst; well, better, best; fast, faster, fastest; often, oftener, oftenest; quick, quicker, quickest; soon, sooner, soonest.

Many adverbs form the degrees of comparison with " and "most": e. g., usefully, more usefully, most

❝ more

usefully.

Articles.

- Articles are sometimes classed with adjectives; but they differ from adjectives in the fact that they have no degrees of comparison, and that they serve purposes peculiar to themselves.

Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections. These three parts of speech have no inflections.

II.

SENTENCES

WHEN We say "Hero barks," we use, as has already been said, the word "Hero" to name something, and the word "barks" to say something about what is named. Neither "Hero" nor "barks "" by itself expresses a complete

thought; but "Hero barks" does express a complete thought. If, instead of "Hero barks," we say "The black dog makes a great noise," we use "the black dog" to name something, and "makes a great noise" to say something about what is named.

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A blue-eyed girl was standing at the window.

I.

The chief of the tribe

II.

was a tall, manly fellow.

In each of these examples, the word or group of words marked I. names the person or thing spoken of, and the word or group of words marked II. says something about the person or thing named. Taken together, the words marked I. and those marked II. express a complete thought. Words that express a complete thought constitute what is called a SENTENCE. In every sentence, the word or group of words which names that about which something is said is called the SUBJECT; and the word or group of words which says (predicates) something of the subject is called the PREDICATE.

The subject, whether composed of one word or of twenty, does not by itself express a complete thought. The predicate, whether composed of one word or of twenty, does not by itself express a complete thought.

The subject of a sentence must be a noun or the equivalent of a noun. The predicate must contain a verb expressed or understood. The verb may constitute the whole predicate, e. g., "Hero barks," — or it may serve simply to connect the principal part of the predicate with the subject: e. g., "The child is little more than ten years old." The verb "is" by itself says nothing, but it forms a connecting

link between the word "child" and the words "little more than ten years old." A verb so used to connect the subject with the words which describe it is called a COPULA.

Sentences, whether long or short, which contain but one subject and one predicate, e. g., "The man asked for water," are called SIMPLE SENTENCES.

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When I say "Brooks rows pretty well, Cooke rows very well, but Drake is the best oarsman in the boat," I put three sentences into one.

The hero came, he saw, he conquered.

The little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.

One of these sentences contains three, the other two, complete assertions, each of which might form a simple sentence. Two or more simple sentences put into one make a COMPOUND SENTENCE.

When I say "Though both boats are made of wood, Brooks's, which was built by Smith, is much lighter than Cooke's, which was built by Robinson," I make but one principal assertion, — that Brooks's boat is much lighter than Cooke's. The other assertions in the sentence are subordinate.

As I was crossing the field,
I.

I saw a brown rabbit, which I
shot at sight.

I.

We heard no more of him till he wrote from Japan that he was about to start for New Zealand.

In each of these examples, the group of words marked I. contains the principal assertion, that on which the other assertions depend. A sentence constructed in this complicated fashion is called a COMPLEX SENTENCE. We may make a compound sentence by joining together complex sentences, or complex and simple sentences.

In compound and complex sentences, each group of words that does not contain both a subject and a predicate is called a PHRASE; each group of words that contains both

a subject and a predicate is called a CLAUSE. A clause which might stand alone is called INDEPENDENT; one which requires another clause to complete the meaning is called DEPENDENT. Two clauses of the same rank or order are called COÖRDINATE; a clause that is dependent on another, or inferior to it, is called SUBORDINATE.

A complete sentence may be known by the fact that it begins with a CAPITAL LETTER and ends with a FULL STOP, or PERIOD (.), an EXCLAMATION POINT (!), or an INTERROGATION POINT (?). By these simple devices a reader is told when a new sentence begins and when it ends.

Sometimes, in order to spare the reader a monotonous succession of short sentences, a skilful writer puts several such sentences between two periods, separating them from one another by semicolons (;) or colons (:).

In the construction of all but very short sentences, punctuation plays an important part. Properly managed, it helps the reader to get at the meaning of what is written or printed; for it serves to separate words that do not belong together, and to unite words that do.

III.

PARAGRAPHS

IN "The Mill on the Floss," George Eliot writes:

Tom rowed with untired vigor, and with a different speed from poor Maggie's. The boat was soon in the current of the river again, and soon they would be at Tofton.

“Park House stands high up out of the flood," said Maggie. "Perhaps they have got Lucy there."

Each of these groups of sentences constitutes what is called a PARAGRAPH. A paragraph may contain but one sentence, or, as in the examples given above, it may contain

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